Instead of One, there were Two
by Erin A. Lasgalen
Summary: In which the Nekoma volleyball team meet Lev's relative from oh so distant Russia.


Kuroo was blinking rapidly, hand halfway up to ruffle his unruly bedhead. His eyes were so owlish he felt more like a part of the Fukurodani nest rather than the feline that he (told himself) he was.

Yaku was gawking openly, face contorted into an expression that was a mix between _kill me now_ , what the hell is happening and _why me._

Yamamoto was messing up his buzz cut absentmindedly, more confused than a certain redhead was when he first heard the nickname "King of the Court", which was saying something.

Inuoka was grinning for some unfathomable reason from ear to ear.

Kenma was just being..Kenma, munching on a cracker he fished from somewhere (probably from Kuroo's not so secret stash of _when I need hype_ sweets) and quietly observing with those eerie golden eyes of his.

The rest of the team was no better, half murmuring between them, half afraid to approach the reason of their current predicament. Even the coaches were doing nothing but stare at their youngest charge as he marched back and forth, in ( too long to be allowed) strides, huffing and puffing at the inanimate object in his hand.

Now, you may ask why he was even allowed a phone during practice. Well, he was not. But they all kept their phones on the benches nearby, just in case anything serious happened and they needed to be informed.

This was the special case for one Haiba Lev.

"IT'S NOT JUST A _SPECIAL_ CASE!", the silverette had wheezed, staring at the caller ID with growing horror. " IT'S A _CAT_ OSTROPHE!"

"Did he just…", started Kuroo, perplexed.

"Pun.." followed a stoic as always Kenma.

Deciding that yes, not answering the phone would result in even bigger horror, their tallest player gulped audibly a few times, emptied his water bottle, dabbed his sweaty forehead with his towel and finally, mustering all the courage a lion like him had to have somewhere deep down, picked up the phone with a tentative _Hi…_

Since then it was maybe an hour (not really, Kenma checked, it was 15 minutes). But it _felt_ like an hour, if not more. Their young charge was pacing back and forth so much that the space would dent. Maybe he'd fall in the hole he will create himself and just finally finish the call?( _And maybe somehow the fall with shorten his limbs? Yaku! Ah right, sorry...uh,my bad, slipped…)._

It was quite entertaining, if not a little annoying, but Lev seemed to get more and more depressed during the duration of the call, until finally whimpering, eyes blown wide.

"No no, you can't just _show up_ here of al places! No no…- me? Miss you? O-of course I miss you dearly, but so does Alisa, you go see her, and lemme finish my prac..-"

Well, thought Kuroo, whatever was coming their way would probably back off after such heartfelt confession... At least he hoped so. Logically it seemed that someone very close to Lev's had come to Japan, most probably, and missed him and his family a little too much. If it was her sister's boyfriend of some sort, then his coming to Nekoma wouldn't be THAT bad, he supposed. At least that would mean no relatives of their lanky future ace.

The thought made him visibly shudder. Even Kenma gave him a slight glance with a little raised eyebrow in tow.

"WHAAAAAAAAT!", came a sudden screech. All the occupants in the gym jumped at the unholy noise Lev just made.

The teen in question was frozen in place like a statue.

"Is he doing the mannequin challenge that's trending online..?" wondered Kenma, his stray thoughts making his childhood friend and partner roll his eyes.

"What do you mean you're alrea..-" Lev's hysterical voice was drowned by a loud bang that echoed through the walls. The doors had opened in a very anime-like ("American movie like.." supplied the resident nerd ) manner and in walked a tall silverette with all the grace and beauty of Marilyn Monroe. The only thing missing was the infamous pose and the dress…

The man (who suspiciously looked like Lev himself) threw his head back, his magnificent hair covering one of his eyes and winked.

The wind blew from outside, accenting the heavily pregnant silence that surrounded the teens (and their frozen coaches) and messing Kuroo's hair a bit more. The magic spell of pure awkward was broken by a choked sob/whimper that came from the now crouching Lev as he tried to make himself as small as possible.

"LVYONOK! YOUR BELOVED UNCLE HAS ARRIVED!", announced the newcomer and promptly pounced on their new blood.

"Oh dear volleyball gods, there's _two_ of them!", lamented Yaku, sinking to the floor in weird goo.

Lev screeched and tried to crawl away but the surprisingly talented arms had already sneaked around him in a death grip. "Come on now, please, don't you even want to _greet_ your most beloved uncle?" cooed the man, rubbing his cheek to the teen's.

"You're my _only_ uncle, Vitya…" grumbled Lev, trying to disengage any limb available from his overly affectionate relative. He'd only seen Victor a handful of times, and all of them were dramatic, fun, extremely exciting and positively dangerous (that one time in St. Petersburg which led to cracked ice and him almost falling in the lake…)

The man, now known as Victor, pouted childishly and stood up, pulling the boy with him. Now that they were side by side, it was evident just _how much_ they looked alike.

"He is taller… _taller Kuroo…_ ", whimpered Yaku, still all goo. "He is probably 2 meters tall!"

To which Victor gave a winning thousand watt toothy smile.

This was how the Nekoma team got acquainted with Lev's famous, magazine-pretty figure skater of an uncle. This was also the day Yaku started teasing his young charge with the nickname 'Lvyonok' (after cornering the older silverette outside and _It's my senpai duty! Tell me what it means, please..)._


End file.
